STAFF RESOURCES

Minutes of September 14, 2000 meeting

Brian Johnson, new ILL Borrowing Coordinator in New Brunswick and ASC visitor, was introduced.

August downtime, debriefing.
Downtime did not last as long as expected; having static, read only IRIS was very helpful; errors with Standalone file transfers were corrected right away; fewer "claims returns" were reported afterwards.

Reports Training.
Judy and Linda Turzynski have designed Unicorn Reports training for ASC members--how to run basic count and list reports. Sessions differ significantly from other training initiatives. They are not "general" reports training sessions, but are only for ASC members and are tailored for them. Almost like a certification program, participants must attend two sessions and do an assignment. At the second session, participants will discuss strategies/successes. Participants will be given an enhanced login in order to run reports, and must complete assignments and training sessions to retain their enhanced login. Judy distributed a flier with sign-in sheet; registrations are due to Linda no later than Sept. 26th.

Because most ASC members will attend two days of training in New Brunswick in October, we decided to CANCEL our regularly scheduled October ASC meeting on Oct. 12th.

Media circulation.
Media Services staff at Kilmer Library have started to use WorkFlows to circulate videos to faculty and TAs for 3-day loans. They will refer questions about user records and registration, fines and bills, to the circulation desk at Kilmer. The "A" Team will begin to immediately return all RRS requests for media "unfilled" to users, with a reply that media can not be requested for delivery using the "request this item" function and referring users to local media services desks. Media Services use of WorkFlows for circulation is separate from their use of the Bookings module, which reserves materials for classroom use and is almost operational in WorkFlows.

Borrower Charts.
Judy distributed revised borrower charts and highlighted updated information. It was suggested that the borrower charts on the Staff Resources web page be posted as PDF documents, for ease of viewing/printing. [Note: Revised borrower charts are now available in PDF on the Staff Resources page.]

Systems Update.

Karen reminded AAL Access Services team members that Library notices replied to on email (bounced back to the Sirsi admin account) will be forwarded to AAL for a response. At first the forwarded Notices came across in a batch; they are now forwarded at more regular and timely intervals. Email library notices that are returned due to a bad email address will continue to be forwarded members of the "bad address" team on a rotating basis.

Interviews for the open position in the Systems department will begin in approximately 3 weeks.

Bob and Karen are attending an API summit in Newfoundland next week, and Karen will be on vacation the following two weeks. Kalaivani will fill in and do the weekly user data loads.

Watch for major changes in database access this fall-- many databases that were loaded in-house will be accessed remotely.

Patrons using Internet Explorer 5.5 can not configure their browser for access to the library proxy server.

Administrative Computing Services will not supply Rutgers email addresses in our data files this semester. It is a major undertaking, more difficult and taking longer than expected.

Announcements/Information Sharing.

Acquisitions staff asked access service where we are most likely to expect to find a barcode in a book if it is not on the inside back cover. Staff agreed the last page (printed or not) is a logical choice.

Budget support for fax machines (toner cartridges, services calls, etc.) has been transferred from the Budget Office to campus library administrations. Get in touch with you local administrative support staff when problems occur.

Tracey has not yet received any missing book reports from unit libraries, if you have big reports, it's OK to send sections and not wait until the entire list is processed.

Linda York's online RRS Excel statistics initiative has been delayed somewhat because of more pressing assignments. She's made visits to Physics, Chemistry, and Robeson and will be in touch with others soon.

Judy has applied for a secure card and password access to real-time registration data, and hopefully can serve as a resource for frontline circulation staff, to verify user statuses during active registration periods.

Discussed reasons for ereserve backlog and steps we can take to prevent a repeat in future. Reserve staff adhere to a "first-in, first-out" rule and asked that the Copy Services adhere to it in their processing workflow as well. Proposal for library scanners for ereserve and document delivery is a long-standing public services budget request. Equipment is needed to help us move workflow to the library level.

Science Direct is coming, and user-initiated document delivery has started via UnCover.

Robeson is experiencing the effects of the ereserve backlog and is busy teaching users how to user the new photocopiers.

Alexander access services is at full staff. History books have been returned from the Annex at History Dept. faculty request.

Shifting in the reference collection at LSM is complete. New students, in addition to work-study, have been hired.

Kilmer has experienced some problems with the new digital printers, exchanging a lot of cards at the desk. Toward the end of summer Kilmer faculty & staff toured the Learning Resource Center on Livingston campus where student contacts are strong but faculty contacts still lacking. Busy training new students.

Reminder, those ILL items with yellow bands must NOT leave the library. Please weed your ILL shelves and send back overdue materials. Online recalls of ILL materials are getting results.

The NB collection management functional group in putting together standard emergency kits (garbage cans with wheels containing mops, plastic, etc.). Douglass RRS staff have experienced equipment and printer problems and may have missed some RRS reports and requests. Douglass is also busy with copicard conversions, ereserves going fairly smoothly. The roof at Douglass is being repaired.

Alcohol Studies has returning work-study students.

Physics has 3 work study students; referring users with old copicards to LSM.

NB Access Services has contracted with the Teaching Excellence Center for a series of basic Excel, Word, and desktop publishing workshops. Coordinators met with Bob Warwick to discuss long overdues.

Dana has 2 RRS students returning.

During the first weeks of the semester while the scanner in the Alex Copy Center is being used for ereserve full-time, RRS articles will be photocopied and mailed from Alex RRS to Robeson and Dana RRS (rather than "arieled").

Students, faculty and staff at Newark are getting a 4th new ID card in as many years. The RUconnection card has not yet arrived on the Newark campus.